


Ash

by Aki_Saiko (saikowrites)



Series: Writober 2019 [13]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Ash - Freeform, F/F, Inktober 2019, Introspection, Pls give Chloe a hug her life is a mess again, Post-Before The Storm, Post-Canon, Smoking, Writober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 15:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21017858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saikowrites/pseuds/Aki_Saiko
Summary: Rachel Amber has been a storm of fire in Chloe's life and now she's gone. So, what's left?WRITOBER 2019 | Day 13: Ash | Based on the official Inktober 2019 prompt list.





	Ash

**Author's Note:**

> I have strongly mixed feelings on BtS episode 3. I honestly hated it for the most part but that ending sequence was stunning and seeing those 37 missed calls from Chloe hit straight up on my chest. What impressed me the most during the game has been the AmberPrice relationship, how it was all flames and passion and big adventures that just disappeared from day to night. This fic comes from that, and writober had perfect timing.

The tip of the cigarette is burning. Ashes fall from it and shatter on the sheets of her bed, but Chloe could hardly care less. Eyes wander over the ceiling, but gaze never focuses. Her room used to be her place to hide: she smoked, listened to loud music, got high, spent countless nights awake drinking and wishing to leave the hell outta Arcadia Bay. It’s distant now, somewhat unrelated to her, but memories of Rachel Amber are still branded on every inch of it. The desk with a map spread onto that they used to plan their escape; the closet in which Rachel stored some spare clothes ‘just in case’; that same bed in which they had sex for the first time in a moonless night after a wild party. Rachel’s touch burned her skin and melted her soul, her body aching and always asking for more, and more.

Chloe draws the cigarette closer to her lips and inhales. Rachel’s phone has gone dead, won’t even play the voicemail. Her parents knew nothing, she just left the house one afternoon and never got back. The police couldn’t find a single evidence and closed the case as ‘missing’.

And really, hadn’t Rachel said she wanted to forget about Arcadia Bay and all its shit? Hop on a car and flip off that damn city? She was smart, charming and a boss at being liked by everyone, and hell if she was aware of that. Rachel could make it out there without her and Chloe knows it – has always been. But they promised to leave together, made plans that always involved both of them, and Chloe clings to that as a tight rope in a raging storm. Her life is a mess once again, every plan destroyed by Rachel’s disappearance.

She was like fire. So fierce, so bright and warm. Always unpredictable, short-tempered and impulsive in her reactions. But she was so alluring Chloe couldn’t help but let her storm into her life, take it in her hands and turn it upside down with the same force that started the fire that burned the woods of Arcadia Bay.

Another drags of cigarette. Smoke slips out from her mouth and vanishes in the air. What’s left now? She has a tattoo climbing up her arm, blue hair casually died, and some old pickup parked outside. The hell is she supposed to do now? Steal some money and run away? She’s no Rachel Amber, no wit, no charm, no ability to be liked by people. But Rachel liked her. More than just ‘liked’ her, if actions spoke something of her feelings. Rachel said she trusted her, that Chloe could have been the one and only person she was able to trust in her life. And as far as Rachel seemed sometime distant and out of her reach, Chloe trusted her, too.

She tosses the cigarette butt in the ashtray on the floor and exhales the last bit of smokes out of her lungs. She won’t leave. Rachel could never have abandoned Arcadia Bay without her. What’s left now is to find her, yell at her for disappearing without a word and flip off that hella town as they dreamed so many times.

Chloe sits on the bad and brushes away the ashes from the sheets. Maybe if there’s no spot, her mom won’t scold her for smoking in her room and leaving a mess. She gets up and her toes curl for the cold floor under them. She gazes at her room and needs to punch every inch of every wall until the pain in her knuckles would make her forget about the pitch-black terror that twitches her stomach.

She heads towards the window upon the desk. How many times did she and Rachel sneak through it to make it to her room without letting anyone notice?

Chloe opens it and a gentle gust of wind ruffles her hair. The night blurs the line between the woods outside Arcadia Bay and the starry sky. Some immense fire born from anger and resentment burned for weeks, took down hectares of forest and made ashes fall from the sky as it was snow. It’s gone now, only a slight column of smoke lifts to the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> Previous work in the collection: Pokémon (gameverse) - Ferriswheel - Dragon  
Next one in the collection will be: Persona 5 - onesided ShuHaru


End file.
